Tuesday, May 29, 2012

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

Reducing school dropouts: Toso forming board with agencies to address attendance in JPS
The Jamestown Sun, Jamestown, ND – May 22, 2012
On Monday the Jamestown Public School Board heard plans for a new board that will be formed with the intended effect of reducing dropout numbers.  Superintendent Bob Toso has been working for more than two years on the School Attendance Review Board, which will include community agencies to better address attendance issues.

Oakland schools' black male students at risk
San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland, CA – May 23, 2012
By the time they reach middle school, more than half of the African American males in Oakland show signs they'll miss high school graduation day, with suspensions and chronic absenteeism topping the list of common characteristics among them, according to a study released Tuesday.

Giving Students a Second Chance
Times-News, Twin Falls, ID – May 27, 2012
Robby Lopez stood in an empty house earlier this month at El Milagro finishing some painting.  The 20-year-old Burley resident’s boots were covered with paint splatters – the result of renovating a small house in the Twin Falls migrant housing area.

Juvenile Justice

Bill would keep some 16 and 17-year-olds out of adult court
The News & Observer, North Carolina - May 22, 2012
State lawmakers are mounting another effort this session to keep more juvenile offenders out of the adult court and prison system.  The “Raise the Age” bill would keep 16- and 17-year-olds in juvenile court for misdemeanors only. North Carolina and New York are currently the only two states where 16- and 17-year-olds are automatically sent to adult court – even though 86 percent of crimes committed by that age group are misdemeanors.

Bibb County Agencies Set To Reduce Juvenile Justice Cases
I3 WMAZ, Bibb County, GA – May 24, 2012
An attorney with the Georgia Legal Services Program worked with the Bibb County Juvenile Justice and school systems to develop a new student discipline protocol.  The goal is to curb the number of students sent before a juvenile court judge for minor offenses at school.

Foster Care

Family Finders connects kids, family
The Charlotte Observer, North Carolina – May 28, 2012
Ever heard of Family Finders? One might assume it’s an organization that finds families interested in adopting kids.  That’s partially correct.  The goal is connecting foster children and youths with families, but the fascinating, and widely unknown, objective of Family Finders is to reunite foster kids with their own families.

Financial mentors help foster teens with budgeting
The Sacramento Bee, California – May 27, 2012
For most teens, money is a gotta-have-it, wanna-spend-it commodity. But for foster teens, who often bounce from home to home in their young years, it's far more complicated. There's no mom or dad doling out a weekly allowance.

Teen Pregnancy

Poor girls aren't condemned to pregnancy, poverty
CNN – May 25, 2012
"Why is the teen birth rate in the United States so high, and why does it matter?" Those questions are posed in the title of a new paper in the Journal of Economic Perspectives getting a good deal of applause on the Internet.


SC is winning the battle against teen pregnancy
GoUpstate.com, South Carolina – May 23, 2012
Imagine sitting with your friends 20 years ago today and spotting a headline in the newspaper about rising teen pregnancy rates. Then imagine someone suggests that — with a modest investment in state dollars, a strong commitment to prevention at the local level, and a coordinated statewide effort involving parents, schools and the faith community — we could reduce teen pregnancy by 40 percent over the next two decades.

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